State investigators close Cleveland pharmacy after finding numerous violations

The inside of Wellness Store Compounding Pharmacy is shown in a 2011 Facebook photo.
The inside of Wellness Store Compounding Pharmacy is shown in a 2011 Facebook photo.

A Cleveland pharmacy has been shuttered and the pharmacist who ran it has surrendered her license following state health officials' investigation of violations in the company's drug making process.

The Wellness Store Compounding Pharmacy, located on Keith Street NW, initially had its license suspended in September after investigators found the pharmacy was using "outdated, deteriorated or otherwise unsafe" ingredients to make eye drops and injectable drugs like steroids and the hormone hCG.

Robin Terrero surrendered her license after the state investigator found that she illegally dispensed forged prescriptions in her son's name; that her staff intentionally falsified records to skirt safeguards designed to prevent the dispensing of expired drugs; that prescriptions were filed incorrectly or misnumbered; and that she frequently left the pharmacy unattended for long periods of time when she was out of town.

photo The inside of Wellness Store Compounding Pharmacy is shown in a 2011 Facebook photo.

Though Terrero "did not admit guilt as to violation of any laws and regulations," the Board of Pharmacy's order states, she did "admit that the state possesses and would present evidence at a contested case hearing" to establish the violations.

Terrero surrendered her license as well as the pharmacy's "for the sole purpose of avoiding further administrative action" related to the case, waiving her right to a case hearing or judicial review.

At least nine East Tennessee clinics received injectable drugs from the Wellness Store since the beginning of 2014, and the pharmacy may have supplied some injectable drugs directly to customers.

State officials said in September that they had not received word of any complications from the drugs, but issued a warning to the clinics that purchased drugs from the pharmacy "out of an abundance of caution."

Compounding pharmacies make small batches of customized drugs. State and federal officials have stepped up their scrutiny of such pharmacies ever since the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak in 2012 -- which killed 16 Tennesseans -- was traced to a compounding pharmacy in New England.

Terrero could not be reached for comment, but a Facebook post from Terrero on the pharmacy's website said, "I will be posting more in the near future ... letting you know where you can find nutritional products and other guidance that I can offer. If there is a product in particular that you are in need of now, please let me know and I will do my best to get it to you."

The Wellness Store has been licensed since 1997, and Terrero since 1979, state records show.

Contact staff writer Kate Belz at kbelz@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6673.

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